diff --git a/drivers/vhost/net.c b/drivers/vhost/net.c
index 9b519897cc17..f61f852d6cfd 100644
--- a/drivers/vhost/net.c
+++ b/drivers/vhost/net.c
@@ -817,12 +817,9 @@ static int vhost_net_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *f)
 	struct vhost_virtqueue **vqs;
 	int i;
 
-	n = kmalloc(sizeof *n, GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOWARN | __GFP_REPEAT);
-	if (!n) {
-		n = vmalloc(sizeof *n);
-		if (!n)
-			return -ENOMEM;
-	}
+	n = kvmalloc(sizeof *n, GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_REPEAT);
+	if (!n)
+		return -ENOMEM;
 	vqs = kmalloc(VHOST_NET_VQ_MAX * sizeof(*vqs), GFP_KERNEL);
 	if (!vqs) {
 		kvfree(n);
diff --git a/drivers/vhost/vhost.c b/drivers/vhost/vhost.c
index f0ba362d4c10..042030e5a035 100644
--- a/drivers/vhost/vhost.c
+++ b/drivers/vhost/vhost.c
@@ -534,18 +534,9 @@ err_mm:
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(vhost_dev_set_owner);
 
-static void *vhost_kvzalloc(unsigned long size)
-{
-	void *n = kzalloc(size, GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOWARN | __GFP_REPEAT);
-
-	if (!n)
-		n = vzalloc(size);
-	return n;
-}
-
 struct vhost_umem *vhost_dev_reset_owner_prepare(void)
 {
-	return vhost_kvzalloc(sizeof(struct vhost_umem));
+	return kvzalloc(sizeof(struct vhost_umem), GFP_KERNEL);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(vhost_dev_reset_owner_prepare);
 
@@ -1276,7 +1267,7 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(vhost_vq_access_ok);
 
 static struct vhost_umem *vhost_umem_alloc(void)
 {
-	struct vhost_umem *umem = vhost_kvzalloc(sizeof(*umem));
+	struct vhost_umem *umem = kvzalloc(sizeof(*umem), GFP_KERNEL);
 
 	if (!umem)
 		return NULL;
@@ -1302,7 +1293,7 @@ static long vhost_set_memory(struct vhost_dev *d, struct vhost_memory __user *m)
 		return -EOPNOTSUPP;
 	if (mem.nregions > max_mem_regions)
 		return -E2BIG;
-	newmem = vhost_kvzalloc(size + mem.nregions * sizeof(*m->regions));
+	newmem = kvzalloc(size + mem.nregions * sizeof(*m->regions), GFP_KERNEL);
 	if (!newmem)
 		return -ENOMEM;
 
diff --git a/drivers/vhost/vsock.c b/drivers/vhost/vsock.c
index d939ac1a4997..3acef3c5d8ed 100644
--- a/drivers/vhost/vsock.c
+++ b/drivers/vhost/vsock.c
@@ -508,12 +508,9 @@ static int vhost_vsock_dev_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *file)
 	/* This struct is large and allocation could fail, fall back to vmalloc
 	 * if there is no other way.
 	 */
-	vsock = kzalloc(sizeof(*vsock), GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOWARN | __GFP_REPEAT);
-	if (!vsock) {
-		vsock = vmalloc(sizeof(*vsock));
-		if (!vsock)
-			return -ENOMEM;
-	}
+	vsock = kvmalloc(sizeof(*vsock), GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_REPEAT);
+	if (!vsock)
+		return -ENOMEM;
 
 	vqs = kmalloc_array(ARRAY_SIZE(vsock->vqs), sizeof(*vqs), GFP_KERNEL);
 	if (!vqs) {
diff --git a/mm/util.c b/mm/util.c
index 10a14a0ac3c2..f4e590b2c0da 100644
--- a/mm/util.c
+++ b/mm/util.c
@@ -339,7 +339,9 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(vm_mmap);
  * Uses kmalloc to get the memory but if the allocation fails then falls back
  * to the vmalloc allocator. Use kvfree for freeing the memory.
  *
- * Reclaim modifiers - __GFP_NORETRY, __GFP_REPEAT and __GFP_NOFAIL are not supported
+ * Reclaim modifiers - __GFP_NORETRY and __GFP_NOFAIL are not supported. __GFP_REPEAT
+ * is supported only for large (>32kB) allocations, and it should be used only if
+ * kmalloc is preferable to the vmalloc fallback, due to visible performance drawbacks.
  *
  * Any use of gfp flags outside of GFP_KERNEL should be consulted with mm people.
  */
@@ -358,8 +360,18 @@ void *kvmalloc_node(size_t size, gfp_t flags, int node)
 	 * Make sure that larger requests are not too disruptive - no OOM
 	 * killer and no allocation failure warnings as we have a fallback
 	 */
-	if (size > PAGE_SIZE)
-		kmalloc_flags |= __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOWARN;
+	if (size > PAGE_SIZE) {
+		kmalloc_flags |= __GFP_NOWARN;
+
+		/*
+		 * We have to override __GFP_REPEAT by __GFP_NORETRY for !costly
+		 * requests because there is no other way to tell the allocator
+		 * that we want to fail rather than retry endlessly.
+		 */
+		if (!(kmalloc_flags & __GFP_REPEAT) ||
+				(size <= PAGE_SIZE << PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER))
+			kmalloc_flags |= __GFP_NORETRY;
+	}
 
 	ret = kmalloc_node(size, kmalloc_flags, node);